When, exactly, did Santa turn corporate? When did Christmas become the holiday shopping season?

Like fruitcake, the outcry ‘Christmas comes earlier every year’ is now tradition. As predictable as that is, it still surprises me.

I ‘m not ready for a million gazillion emails from retail giants that pester me to hurry! hurry! shop now! this deal ends today!

Except for the ones from the John Lewis Partnership. They sell, well, everything. And with smashing success. JLP is the bees knees, likely because it’s employee-owned. All 88,900 permanent staff are Partners who own 48 John Lewis shops across the UK, 350 Waitrose supermarkets, an online and catalogue business, a production unit, and, yes, even a farm. The business has annual gross sales of over £11bn and all partners share in the benefits and profits.